Brand New Delta Card With No Annual Fee!

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As I talked about a little bit a few days ago when covering the increased sign-up bonus on JetBlue’s no annual fee credit card, while some of us in the miles and points world aren’t afraid of annual fees because we travel enough to know that we will get our money’s worth, there is a whole other (large) subset of people who absolutely do not want to pay annual fees for their credit cards. Or, even if they are okay with an annual fee, they only want it on one of their cards, not on multiple cards.

My parents actually fall into this category as they don’t mind an annual fee on one or maybe two cards, but that is really the limit because $95 per year times two or three or four cards really adds up.

Brand New Delta Card With No Annual Fee

The Delta Amex family of cards is now getting on the no annual fee bandwagon and adding a new card to the line up. The Blue Delta SkyMiles® Credit Card from American Express has just been introduced as a way to earn Delta miles with your everyday purchases without having to pay an annual fee.

Right now this card has a 10,000 mile sign-up bonus after you spend $500 on eligible purchases in the first three months, which is actually pretty solid for a no annual fee card as sometimes cards with no annual fee don’t come with any sign-up bonus.

The new Blue Delta SkyMiles Card awards 2x miles on Delta purchases, 2x at US restaurants, and 1x elsewhere. When using the card you also get a 20% savings in the form of a statement credit on all eligible in-flight purchases of food, beverages, and audio headsets on Delta flights.

What is really interesting to me is that the card actually earns miles better than some of the other Delta Amex cards that have annual fees in that there is a bonus category of US restaurants. That said, the no annual fee card from Amex that is actually even better for earning Delta miles in many cases is The Amex EveryDay® Credit Card as it awards 2x at US supermarkets, on up to $6,000 each year, 1x elsewhere, but then also gives at 20% bonus on the points earned if you have 20 or more purchases in a billing cycle. The Membership Reward points earned by that card can transfer 1:1 to Delta, or to a host of other Membership Rewards partners.

The new Blue Delta SkyMiles Credit Card’s welcome bonus is unfortunately not available to applicants who have or have ever had the card before (which is none of us as it is new), or have or have had the Delta SkyMiles Credit Card, Gold Delta SkyMiles Credit Card, Platinum Delta SkyMiles Credit Card, or Delta Reserve® Credit Card in the last 90 days. I don’t see that wording on the other Delta cards yet, but it certainly makes me nervous.

This new no annual fee card does not seem to offer the priority boarding or checked bag waiver that you would get with the Gold Delta SkyMiles® Credit Card, though that card has a $95 annual fee after the first year that comes with a $0 introductory annual fee.

Whether you want in on the 10,000 mile sign-up bonus or simply want a way to earn Delta miles on everyday purchases and save 20% on many in-flight Delta purchases, I’m happy to see that they have added the no annual fee Blue Delta SkyMiles Credit Card to the product line-up. I hope that at some point they will allow those with the Delta annual fee cards to product change down to this no annual fee card if they desire, though thus far there are no data points to suggest that is currently an option.

What do you think about the airlines offering a no annual fee card option? In which cases would you consider getting the no annual fee version of a card?

I was about to cancel my Gold Delta card before I was charged another annual fee next month. I chatted online, and was able to get my Gold card downgraded to this new Blue Delta card within a few minutes. Another difference is that the Blue card charges a foreign transaction fee, but I have plenty of cards that don’t, so not a big deal.

About Summer

Well, I am a married mom in my mid-30's. I have two rock star, adorable, beautiful, fantastic, mischievous, humorous, smarter-than-my-own-good girls. One is currently 7 going on 17 and the other is closing in on her 2nd birthday. I am obsessed with my adorable and insane kiddos, and also obsessed with earning and using airline and hotel points and miles to show them the world on a budget we can afford. Learn more about Summer

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